Bangalore to get new cricket stadium

Bangalore, March 3: It may be time for Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium to move over and make way for a glistening new facility. Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Thursday said the State government is keen to build a state-of-the-art cricket stadium with a capacity of about one lakh on the outskirts of the city. The CM has approved a plan to construct the stadium by 2013.

“The KSCA stadium has delivered to the need of the cricket fans for several decades. But since the number of cricket fans has increased in leaps and bounds, the present infrastructure is found to be inadequate in terms of seating capacity. I am of the view that Bangalore needs a bigger and more sophisticated stadium which should become a reality in about two years from now," the chief minister said.

The CM's proposal came in response to a complaint raised by Opposition Congress and JD (S) members on the alleged maladministration by the Karnataka State Cricket Association during the recently-held World Cup match against England.

In an attempt to defend the KSCA management, the CM said the concerned authorities had been informed that the number of tickets available to Bangalore fans would be limited as most of the tickets had been sold in Kolkata where the match was to have been played according to the original itinerary.

“The seating capacity of Kolkata stadium is about a lakh and odd where as the KSCA"s capacity is about 48,000. This is also one of the reason why there was shortage of tickets as told by the management of the stadium," Yeddyurappa said.Oneindia Cricket